to be livid with letting agency?

[plantsitter]

I would genuinely like to know before I go on a massive rant at them, because I'm 7.5 months pregnant and this could be hormones not righteous anger.

We've just moved out of a rented house and into our own (yippee) house. The landlord of the rented house was really crap and the house had slugs and mice which he refused to help us do anything about, so I am already predisposed to dislike him.

I was really helpful about viewings before we moved out, even to the extent of dropping my spare keys round to the lettings agent when someone wanted to view and I knew I wouldn't be in (they didn't have their own set of keys).

I have just checked online out of curiosity as I think we were paying too much rent and I've discovered that the agent has taken photos of my house, with my stuff in it, without my permission and put them on the internet! Bad enough that the living room and kitchen are on there but my daughter's room with her cot and curtains that I made myself and stuff are on there too!

I'm feeling like my privacy has totally been invaded as the photos must've been taken days before we left and cleared the place out and the agent has obviously moved things to make the pictures look better.

So am I a big hormonal sniveller or would you complain and ask them to take photos of the place empty?

i think you are being abit unreasonable. a house we moved out of 3 years ago is up to rent, i have just sen it online with all our furniture in it (the people who moved in after us were slobs) be flattered that they liked your taste so much they took photos!

The chances are that had you been at home the LL or his agent would have taken exactly the same photos. IME it is standard practice to photograph a home available for rent with the existing tenant's furniture in it if the property is being advertised whilst that tenant is serving their notice period. Would you have forbidden that had you been there when the pictures were taken?

Don't sweat the small stuff, ignore the website and concentrate on sorting your new home out and on your family. Surely it's not worth fussing over?

Hmph. No, I suppose I wouldn't have forbidden it except I thought it was a right mess. Looks quite nice on the photos though.

May have to get a tattoo saying 'don't sweat the small stuff' somewhere I can easily refer to it, Vallhala. In my defense I have just bought and moved into a house while 7 mmonths pregnant and with an 18 month old (frantically justifies self).

Thanks for input, both. Will try to calm down and go to bed where I belong.

Ah ha! So it'll be a 19-20 month gap between children? I knoq that stress-inducer all too well plantsitter!

Btw, I'm great at giving the "don't sweat the small stuff" advice. Taking it is a different matter. Perhaps I should join you at that tattoo parlour! :o

Hey plantsitter, Excellent advice from Vallhala.

Stop worrying about everything and start thinking about what delicious afternoon snack you're going to provide for me this aft.

But it wasn't your house, it was your landlords house. They may have been your things, but I assume you've taken them with you and made your new house your own. So really, its not even worth caring about. Plus I think you'd sound a bit silly asking them to take down pictures of a house you don't even live in anymore, sorry, YABU.

Oh dear - you could be me.

I will focus on everything other than the fact that I'm about to have a 19 month gap between children

Good luck with new baby - I have that gap between my 2 youngest and its fab.

"But it wasn't your house, it was your landlord's house."

Actually no, mini. When you lease a house, the right to occupy it passes to the tenant for the duration of the lease. The landlord cannot just come and go as he pleases and neither can the agent. Under law, the landlord has no right to enter the property - although, of course, most leases will give the landlord rights of entry for specified purposes with prior notice. The agency had NO right whatsoever to photograph the OP's possessions. (I used to practice Landlord and Tenant Law by the way). It makes me absolutely furious when landlords take the rent and do no repairs, by the way. The OP sounds very reasonable.

Sorry I think you are being a teensy bit U (and this coming from the queen of LL/LA haters).

They need to market the property as soon as they know its going to become vacant so it isnt sitting empty for ages so if the needed photos to do this then obviously they would have been taken while you were still there.

mini - It may be the LL's property but its the tenant's HOME.

Good luck with the new arrival. I have 23 months between my two and they are really close (its so sweet).

I think YANBU, as it would have been a courtesy for them to have asked you.

When you left your keys with them, did you remind them that they were not to do viewings without notice? As far as I see it, taking pictures is something they ought to have given notice for, as well. After all, it is people going into your home. I totally agree with nomedoit and sb6699 on that.

A "do you mind" might have been nice, I wouldn't be altogether happy with photos being taken while I wasn't there.

OTOH my agent took photos without asking (but while I was there) when they did there annual inspection, and I guess they may use these to advertise in the future.

I didn't really mind, although it was a wee bit cheeky, because I'd tidied up for the inspection anyway, so it looked nice & there wasn't anything really personal on view.

I guess if you'd given them the keys for viewing then they could say they assumed you were leaving it in a viewable state & they wouldn't mind.

But I think the finding out by chance is the thing that's upset you? That would make me feel my privacy had violated, not having had the option of refusing.

I wonder where you would stand legally if you refused to allow them to publish photos of your private home (and it is supposed to be your home while you are renting it, even if your landlord owns the property) without your permission?

Prob not worth the hassle of finding out, but I'm always interested to find out what the legal status is.

'you were leaving it in a viewable state and you wouldn't mind', obviously.

I'm no good at proofreading long posts!

We had photos taken of our rented house and they did show our furniture but they did ask and we moved anything private (eg a photo on the shelf) out of the way.

If there is anything that will identify you in the photos you could ask them to remove that photo but otherwise I think you are over worrying about a small issue.

How did you expect them to remarket the house? What marketing material did you see when you moved in?

Surely you must know that photos are taken for this purpose and it is unlikely that they will use old ones as the house may have changed slightly (redecorated / curtains changed etc).

YABU but I know why you feel that way.

You can't do anything about it now. The slugs / dropping keys etc is all in the past and has no bearing on how the agent has behaved. They have done nothing wrong. it is what they do.

It is what I do when I do management visits (though I do ask if a tenant is home and refuse to photograph bedrooms).

Move on and enjoy your new home.

If they entered and took photos without your permission, they would have to take them down. You are entitled to 'quiet enjoyment' of the property you are renting and having your personal possessions photographed is in breach of that in my opinion. I have been a tenant and a landlord and I do feel that some landlords forget that the tenant has paid to 'own' the leasehold of the property for the period of the lease.

I would be pretty annoyed, to take photos of your things in the house without your premission is wrong, they should have at least asked you first. they must have had old photos from before you moved in they could have used. id say something

I would be very upset actually. Maybe i'm being silly but I would feel violated! They should have asked and you should have been present.

I have seen so many listings recently, using old photos, that it seems this simply isn't a problem for agents. If you don't want your home put on display without your knowledge and permission, they can flipping well find another way to market it. Or ask permission. Nicely.

I think you must've had my old house - slugs and mice etc!

I would've been very annoyed and asked them to remove the photos. You had not given the agents your permission and they were taking liberties.

My previous agents asked permission and I removed anything personal from view and expensive equipment/items were hidden. Your pics are available for anyone to see on the internet.

Ooh have only just seen all these replies. Glad I'm not being totally unreasonable by the majority opinion.

I'm still quite narked but I have decided to forget about it and move on to the next hormonal unbearable tragedy/crisis which all seems a bit pointless the next day. Wonder what it will be?

By the way, minibmw, it was my home for 2 years and I was legally entitled to treat it as such - I don't think owning a house allows you to do what you like in it if you have people contractually using it. And anyway if it had been my house I would've treated it a darn sight better than my landlord did!

Thanks for comments, all.

However if the property is still empty there's nothing to be lost by contacting the estate agent and saying that whilst you understand that they wanted to get the photos of the property up asap in order to market it, you wouldhave preferred if they had let you know that they were going to do it in order to remove any of your personal stuff from view. REmember to point out that you don't want them being used to advertise the property in the future.

And as they now have an empty property, please would they take pictures of the empty property asap and swap them for the pictures with your possessions in.

If you don't tell them they can get away with pretending that what they did was reasonable and will continue to do it.

If they change the pix then you will be happier and they will have shown themselves to be better than average estate agents.

if they don't - well, other than a few mins on a phone call, you haven't lost anything.

Plus you will be able to rant at them or give them a real sob story as you are pregnant and therefore allowed to be hormonal emotional